The invention relates to a suspension for a wheel in a motor vehicle, in particular in a passenger car.
A conventional wheel suspension of this type has a link which is designed as a longitudinal link and is mounted at one end, by means of a mounting, on a chassis of the vehicle and on which the wheel is held at the other end. In addition, a wheel suspension of this type usually has spring means which support the link on the chassis in a resilient manner. In order to be able to accommodate spring means of this type in the wheel suspension, the overall space required for this purpose has to exist. This insulation space is often not available, in particular in small cars.
The present invention is concerned with the problem of specifying an embodiment for a wheel suspension of the type mentioned at the beginning which requires a small installation space.
According to the invention, this problem is solved by a wheel suspension having the features of claim 1. Designing the spring means as a torsion-bar suspension enables a construction managing with a relatively small installation space to be realized for the wheel suspension.
A particularly compact construction results if the torsion-bar suspension is formed from two torsion-bar springs which are connected in series and are arranged coaxially to each other, at least one torsion-bar spring being of tubular design and surrounding the other torsion-bar spring concentrically.
In an advantageous development, a torsion-bar stabilizer made of fiber composite can be provided, which stabilizer is of tubular design, extends coaxially to the pivot axis of the link on the chassis, surrounds the torsion-bar suspension concentrically, and is fastened at one end directly or indirectly to the link of the wheel suspension and is fastened at the other end directly or indirectly to a link of a second wheel suspension which is of corresponding construction and lies opposite on the same vehicle axle. In this manner, the two Wheel suspensions of an axle are positively coupled to each other, which enables a stabilizing action to be obtained for the vehicle body in the event of load changes, particularly when cornering.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the link can be designed as a leaf-spring suspension which is preferably of U-shaped design and has two spring legs which run essentially equidistantly from each other and are connected at one end to a bearing part, fixed to the link, of a mounting which mounts the link on the chassis and are connected at the other end to each other via a web on which the wheel is held. In this manner, the link itself forms a further spring means for supporting the wheel on the chassis. Particularly expedient suspension characteristics can be produced by the series connection of the leaf-spring suspension and the torsion-bar suspension. In particular, the leg springs can be provided with an S-shaped precurvature which extends the link when the wheel is loaded vertically, i.e. when it is deflected inwards, and shortens it when the wheel is relieved of load, i.e. when it rebounds. This measure enables the relative position of the wheel on the chassis to be varied dynamically and specifically in an advantageous manner, i.e. as a function of the forces occurring on the vehicle.
Further important features and advantages of the wheel suspension according to the invention emerge from the subclaims, from the drawings and from the associated description of the figures with reference to the drawings.
It goes without saying that the abovementioned features and those features which are still to be explained below can be used not only in the combination specified in each case, but also in other combinations or on their own without departing from the scope of the present invention.